Going racing this Sunday. My class is small but these Vette's are tough to beat. The car is mostly ready. Just need to charge the Go-Pro, do some safety checks, and install a new O2 sensor then I should be good-to-go. Classic American Muscle - Sport 2 entries # Name YearMakeSponsor Hometown 21 Moore, Chris 1972Ford MaverickMaverick Outlaw Racing Roanoke, TX 72 Wilkins, Bill 1982Chevrolet corvette McKinney, TX
The car ran great this weekend. Felt strong. After making some initial adjustments to get the car to stick, it became all about finding the best line and how much the car could take. I never found the limit which means I left a lot on the table. I was in the first run group of the day and wished I was in the 2nd or even third. You can learn soo much from watching others. I finished the day off with beating the Corvette by 5 seconds. But truthfully, he was fairly new and driving a car that wasnt set up for this. Widening the competition a little (all RWD American Cars on street tires) I was 11th out of 22 and 3.5 seconds out of 1st. Not too bad but as stated above, if only I had seen some other guys run it first. I've got video of each of my runs so I'll get that posted up later.
Nice job. I hope scca changes the rules next year to allow our cars to play with the Mustangs, camaros, and other muscle cars. the tires seem to be a good equalizer
The only other Muscle car at the show was a 79 camaro. Hes the one that took me for 3.5 seconds. I've got some catching up to do.
OK... Here are the videos. I dont think I like the position of the camera. Its noisy and looks slow. I can honestly tell you though that the speeds were hitting 60mph on the straits. I'd lilke to find a way to mount it up high in the center of the windshield. I'll have to work on that. Here is my first run. I forget how slick this parking lot is and found myself caught off guard with the lack of traction. I'd like to say that it was over/understeer but really just lacked traction everywhere. Second Run. After the first, I made some changes to the rear shocks to try and get the rear end to loosen up some. I softened the high/low speed compression. This helped a bunch as in the second u-turn I was soo caught off by the amnt of traction I now had, I went to the wrong side of the exit cone thus getting a DNF on this run. My time however was the same as the previous despite going the harder of the 2 routes so I knew I had something right. Third Run. Softened the rear just a tad more and check my tire pressures. Let the Nitto's down to 26 on all corners and went for it. I dropped 2 seconds on this run. Getting better Forth Run. No changes. Its time to push the limits and see if I can hit the rev limiter on the straits. Picked up a passenger at the last minute. He got a kick out of how well the old car performed. Same time as before. Last Run. Still no changes and no passenger. I dropped my time from previous almost another second. After watching this video and seeing how other drivers approached the course in the later sessions, I can see where I left lots of time out there. Let me see if I can break this down From the launch there is a quick jog to the right before tripping the timing beam. The idea is to go through with as much speed as possible like a running start. Right after the beam is a left hand sweeper followed by a long straight. Instead of treating this like a sweeper, I ignored the pointer cone and got out to the strait on on the gas as soon as possible. What I should have done was trust the car and attack the pointer code at full throttle. 1-second lost here Next section is the first u-turn. The designer left lots of room here for you to screw up the best line. I found myself getting on the breaks too early and apexing too early. A later apex would allow me to 1) have more speed coming into the turn and 2) get on the gas earlier coming out of the turn. 1-second lost here Next section is a mirror image of the last except the exit gate is not the key here is the slalom cone coming out of it to aim for. On my second run above, I hugged the cones in this turn too tightly this positioning myself on the wrong side of the slalom cone. I still was not focusing on the exit cone on this and could have let the speed carry me a little further. .5 seconds lost here. Quick Jog to the left in the chicane and into a long right hand sweeper. The car just wants to drift it. Always has and is always a challenge to not let it get out of hand as coming out of the sweeper is another slalom but this time it starts on the inside so speed must be in control at that point. Going through the slalom you have to let the cars momentum carry you through the first 2 cones and start feeding the throttle coming around the 3rd. Dont pay attention to the last cone but look past it to the entry gate to the next section. I did this OK but could have hugged the cones a little tighter and gassed it more coming out. Every foot of space you give a cone is a 10th of a second they say. .5-seconds lost here. Long straight into a tight chicane here. Woohoo, I finally hit the rev limiter. Then hard on the breaks to make the first left. I should have cut the wheel tighter here as the car would have done it. This would line me up better and for the next left. The next left goes into a decreasing radius turn which concludes with the finish beam. Hitting that last left is critical for having the fastest line through the beam. I noticed a lot of cars letting their car drift outside the chalk line to keep up the speed. Yet another trick I wish I had tried myself. Another 1-second lost. So in all, I count 4 seconds I should have been able to pick up.
Here is a video the local guys put together of the event. Maverick spotted at 00:49. Looks flat and twitchie. This would be the first run where the car was set up too tight. Sorry about the soundtrack.
